


Drifting

by SonjaJade



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Childbirth, Gen, Hypothermia, On the Run
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 09:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5579437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Izayoi worries that they'll both die in the snow before she can find shelter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drifting

**Title:** Drifting  
**Author/Artist:** Sonja Jade  
**Fandom:** InuYasha  
**Characters/Pairings:** Izayoi, InuYasha  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters within this story based on the series by Rumiko Takahashi.  
**Summary/Teaser:** Izayoi worries that they'll both die in the snow before she can find shelter.  
**Rating:** G  
**Word Count:** 1,158  
  
  
The mansion was engulfed in flames and her lover was telling her to leave and live a long life, even as he was preparing to slaughter the man who'd come and tried to kill her. Izayoi’s heart raced as she turned and dashed from the burning building, not even stopping to quickly step into shoes.  
  
Her body throbbed with pain, blood ran from her womanhood in hot rivulets off her ankles and into the snow. The baby in her arms was still bloody and crying from the trauma of birth, and all she could think of was how frozen they'd both be if she didn't keep moving.  
  
Izayoi looked to the sky from underneath the red robe her beloved had wrapped around her- his sacred Robe of the Fire Rat. The snow was drifting lazily past, as if it were a calm winter’s night.  The flakes had no idea of the carnage taking place at the small palace she was running from, the carnage that could catch up to her in mere moments if she stopped to look too long at the collapse of the palace roof.  
  
And InuYasha would not stop crying.  
  
She soon began to cry as well, scared to death that Touga couldn’t kill Takemaru, despite having lost one of his arms and knowing the mansion had collapsed on top of both of them.  
  
Izayoi was terrified of being captured and killed a second time, dreading that someone would take her only son and torture him to death.  She fought her fears off long enough to think for a moment, and realized her newborn would likely quiet down if she fed him. If he was quiet, it would be harder for someone to find her.  
  
She ducked into the tree line, crouched down behind some bushes, and doing her best to ignore the pain lingering in her lower body, Izayoi opened her clothing enough to offer her son nourishment.  Thankfully, he took to her breast right away without incident. As he eagerly drank his first meal, Izayoi kept looking over her shoulder, forcing her breath to calm so she could listen to the forest around her.  
  
Her tears slowed, and after a long, silent stretch, she took a moment to really look at the boy in her arms. His snow white hair, his soft cheeks, the dark gold eyes, his adorable puppy ears… InuYasha was the most beautiful child she'd ever lain eyes on.  
  
“Everything's going to be alright, my son,” she whispered.  “We'll find our way home soon.”  
  
Izayoi's sense of direction was skewed, having gone from labor and birthing to fleeing for her life with a baby in her grip. But now that she'd had a moment to calm down, she was getting her bearings. There should be a small farming village coming up in about five miles. If she could manage to walk so far with numb feet, she knew they could find a way to get all the way back to her mother's castle the next morning.  
  
At last, InuYasha spit her nipple out and curled up against her body, sound asleep. She took a moment to fashion a diaper out of a handkerchief in her sleeve before settling him inside her clothing, next to her skin. He yawned, and Izayoi smiled as she noticed the beginnings of what looked like fangs making themselves known on his gum lines. There was no doubt the boy belonged to the feared Inu no Taisho. Izayoi only hoped this illegitimate heir could honor his father's name in some way, some day.  
  
She got back to her feet, determined to make it to the farming village before too much longer. The longer Izayoi walked, the more painful walking became. She was exhausted, frozen, the pain of labor and birthing now dulled some, but she wasn’t sure if it was because she’d simply gotten used to it or if she was becoming numb all over.  Every step felt like needles in her feet.  Izayoi decided if she collapsed, she would do her best to to swaddle her son in his father’s Fire Rat and hope that someone found him in the morning before the elements got to him as well.  But just as she thought she couldn’t go any further, the village came into view, and her tingling legs moved a little faster toward the warm looking huts.  
  
She stumbled into the village, bleary eyed and dizzy, knocking on home after home, begging for warmth and shelter for the night.  Every time someone came to answer her cries for help, one look at InuYasha immediately changed their minds.  Her vision was going spotty, her lungs ached from breathing in the frigid air for so long, and she was sure no one was going to take them in.  
  
She knocked at the largest hut, but as she waited for someone to come to her aid, her body had reached the end of its strength.  Izayoi’s legs buckled and she fell into the house, lying on the floor next to several strange pairs of shoes.  She tried to get up, to speak, anything- but as soon as she felt warmth surround her, her eyes closed and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.  
  
When Izayoi woke, she was under several blankets near the fire and InuYasha was not with her.  She sat up with a jolt and immediately began searching for her son, only to be quieted and handed a bowl of broth.  The woman who handed her the soup showed her where the infant lay sleeping, only a few feet away from her.  
  
“You can’t stay here,” the woman said firmly, but not unkindly.  
  
“I know,” replied Izayoi.  
  
When a man entered the home some time later, he informed Izayoi that he had a wagon he would use to take her as far as Osaka.  Izayoi agreed and thanked him and the woman for looking after them.  
  
She gathered her son and followed the man to his wagon.  The villagers watched as they rolled out of town, mothers shielding their children’s eyes from her and InuYasha, an elderly man shuffling to the home they’d just departed from, incense in hand and chanting some kind of prayer.  
  
Izayoi bowed her head sadly.  No matter where she went, as long as InuYasha was with her, she would be shunned and treated worse than a stray cat.  Once in Osaka, would anyone take her in?  She had family there, but would they let a hanyou child in their home?  
  
_“Izayoi, you must survive and live a long life; live long and well with InuYasha.”_  
  
Izayoi didn’t know how she was going to keep her promise, but she knew one thing for certain as she gazed down at her sleeping son.  Izayoi swore she would spend the rest of her life trying to make sure InuYasha was loved and happy, even if she was the only one to ever do so.


End file.
